


Helping

by paperstalk



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Not Beta Read, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 17:13:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperstalk/pseuds/paperstalk
Summary: James doesn't really need both elbows, does he? Severus doesn't think so. But he'll take his stupid friend to the stupid hospital.He ropes someone into helping.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 13
Kudos: 55





	Helping

**Author's Note:**

> AU: Can stand alone. Takes place in my Merope's Failure AU only up to Severus Snape, Champion Duelist.

Severus let out an involuntary huff.

Apparating an injured James Potter would have been difficult enough.

An injured James who was also in the stage of drunkeness where the body becomes a gloopy molten substance that can’t stand up?

“They grow-hicc-up, so so fast don’t they Sev? I’m going to be a grandpa. I’ve just gone 40” James had said.

“You were 40 three years ago” Remus had chimed in helpfully.

Then his wanker of a mate Potter decided to apparate from his own kitchen to his bathroom. A mere three doors down the hall.

He left his bloody elbow behind. Literally.

The bloody triangle of bone and skin was in Severus’ pocket.

A lightning fast stasis charm on both the elbow and the gaping whole on James’s right arm, and Severus and Remus were readying to apparate to St Mungo’s. Reattaching bone to bone was a bit beyond his own skill for personal first aid during dueling matches, and Severus knew that even with the stasis they should get to a healer as quickly as possible.

But where the devil was Remus? They started apparating together, Remus was supposed to be supporting James’ injured side. If he had to rescue a second splinched friend, Severus was going to demand restitution. This was Harry’s fault.

One does not announce one has successfully proposed to one’s longtime girlfriend and also announce that said girlfriend is 7 months pregnant at the same happy hour event.

James always was hopelessly sentimental. He’d been sloshed within a quarter hour on Sirius’ special punch.

James stumbled on some uneven pavement as they shuffled toward the front door of a derelict department store. The stumble turned into a list, morphed into a fall which Severus barely hauled him up from.

“Christ Potter, you’re so much dead weight you know that?”

Looking up Severus spotted what appeared to be an able bodied person.

“You there, come help me. Take some of his weight on that side. See if you can get under the arm, but mind the elbow.”

The woman, it was a woman in Muggle jeans and trainers and a soft looking shirt, turned to look at him.

Her eyes seemed to track slower as if she had to drag them away from the facade, and she took precious seconds to really see the predicament he was in with James.

“Sorry?” came the breathy question.

“Help” he enunciated.

She looked from his face, to James, and her cringe let Severus know when she got to the elbow.

“I’ll just…” as she minced forward, awkwardly grabbing a fist of James’ shirt near his waist. Her other hand got a decent hold of his underarm and she stepped forward with Severus, looking like she was frog marching James to certain doom.

They made it up the three wide dusty stairs.

The woman stumbled a bit as she stared at the mother and child who passed them coming out of the disguised entrance. And she gasped a very quiet, petite gasp, but full of deep shock as their group of three stepped through the faux department store glass door and their eyes adjusted to the sunny, sterile, not overly busy front lobby of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

They were third in line at the help desk. James wasn’t getting any lighter and Severus hoped the woman could hold him up a little while longer. He loathed that splinching injuries were among those you weren’t supposed to levitate the victim. Even a feather-weight charm could mess with the healers’ ability to correctly realign all the pieces.

Allegedly. Seemed more of a punishment for the savior.

A gurgling emanated from the depths of James’ throat.

Perfect. Disgusting bodily fluids were exactly the thing needed when first meeting attractive women. Or anyone.

“Thank you James,” Severus muttered.

Perhaps it was thanks for being a reason to meet curly headed adorable-if suspiciously quiet-women, then again maybe it was sarcastic gratitude for introducing vomit to the meeting, or maybe just thanks for missing Severus’ shoes.

The woman’s shoes were not so thankful.

All three of them watched as a few odd colored chunks dripped down the shins of her jeans to join the puddle of liquid on the floor.

James’ head lolled down in near faint.

The woman met his sneer.

“Get him cleaned up. I’ll hurry the line along, this is ridiculous.”

Severus uneasily relinquished the unsteady James and crowded the person in front of him closer to the desk. They were almost done, but no harm could come from making sure they knew he was in a hurry.

After a brief verbal tussle with the Welcome Witch, Severus turned, room assignment in hand, to see the woman dabbing at James’ still moist chin with handkerchief.

“Don’t mop it around. A simple scourgify will do.” Unfortunately terse, but correct.

A smooth gesture across his pectoral and his wand flew from its holster into his hand. A non-verbal scourgify had everyone and the floor back to their pre-vomit state.

The woman blinked slowly at him before looking down at her jeans and checking the spot on her shirt where James’ had dripped in Severus’ absence.

Severus also looked her up and down. Checking that she was clean. Of course his spellwork was without question. But was the soft shirt unaltered? Had it been that - supple before?

It didn’t matter.

He stepped forward to take possession of the left armpit again.

Was she stunned into silence? Had no one ever helped her get cleaned up before?

Probably still reeling from having been vomited upon by a total stranger.

Whatever she was, she stepped forward with some of James’ weight as Severus led them down the left corridor toward the Near Dire Emergency Ward.

James oozed into an empty bed and started to snore.

Severus and the woman watched the mighty Auror twitch before looking back up to each other.

“I’ll wait with him now. You’re free to go. Thank you for your assistance Miss…?”

“Granger.”

“Miss Granger.”

Her eyes kept drifting to his chest and catching on the black leather of his holster worn over his close fitting cotton t-shirt.

Severus knew that his spell had cleaned all of the vomit. Was she was interested in the make of the holster? It wasn’t a popular location for everyday casting, but it served his dueling best to harness his wand at the pectoral opposite his casting hand.

Another snore that sounded more like a waking troll drew their gaze.

“I’ll be going.”

She studied Severus once more. A careful once-over that tightened his stomach.

Her lower lip was caught in her teeth. A small breath of air, she’d thought of something else to say.

But the Healer on duty chose that moment to bustle over and beginning manhandling James.

And then Miss Granger was gone.

Severus only watched the door for a moment. Or more. He was still contemplating the way she’d gone as he answered the mediwitch’s many questions.

* * *

The bloody elbow was reassembled within a quarter hour. James was force fed a Sober-up after the splinching was healed, and they made him stay for “observation” for another 10 minutes.

No one was really observing them. Therefore Severus poked James toward the door after 8 minutes.

Sober now, James signed his own paperwork at the check-out desk.

Severus planned to side-along apparate James home. His mate should take it easy, but also, Lily would murder them if her husband splinched a second time.

Arms crossed over his chest, Severus surveyed the lobby.

And there she was. Still here.

Of course she must have some other business here, why else would she have been standing in front of the entrance.

She was sitting beside a large bulletin board, fervently reading. A magazine? She had a veritable stack of papers, magazines, and pamphlets in her lap. He hoped she didn’t have to wait long.

If James was going to take much longer, perhaps he could fetch her a tea. As a thank you. For hefting James.

But James was finished and proceeded to shuffle out of the door. Severus followed, stealing a last glance over his shoulder at the massive amount of decadent curls.

* * *

The very next morning Severus was entering St Mungo’s again.

Straightening his smart looking blazer, adjusting the collar of his black button-up shirt.

_You’re going to be charming. You’re going to be smooth. You will not appear desperate or threatening. You will get information out of the Welcome Witch._

Lily, who intercepted he and James arriving from the hospital, hadn’t heard of a Miss Granger. Which was odd. Miss Granger who was younger than himself should have had Lily as a Potions professor.

Of course now Lily wanted to know why Severus wanted information on a female.

“To thank her properly. Remus abandoned me, and the lady helped me ensure your wastrel husband received timely medical attention.”

Passing into the lobby, Severus came to an abrupt stop. There was a line. Six people stood between him and the witch whom he might persuade to share some information.

Severus struggled to wipe the snarl from his lips and appear calm, inviting, and hopefully debonair should the Welcome Witch glance back at him during his wait. First impressions and all that.

The line crawled forward by one person and Severus wrestled his considerable focus into not losing his temper. Instead he tried to remember everything he knew of Miss Granger from the night before.

She was helpful. He wanted to touch her shirt. And her curls. No no, she was helpful. Quiet. She looked at him closely. She was a voracious reader when she’d sat right over there

Good heavens. She still sat right over there.

Stepping out of line, Severus moved slowly but purposefully towards her.

She was in the same clothes as yesterday. Same supple shirt. Had she stayed all night?

Her face did look a bit peaked. Eyes a bit red, as if she hadn’t slept well, or at all.

“Good morning Miss Granger.”

Her gaze started at his shoes and quickly zipped up his whole body before settling on his face. Severus was glad again that he’d taken special care with his appearance.

She made no move to respond or acknowledge him.

“Can I get you a tea from the cafe?” Her gaze followed his gesture toward the “cafe”. A window down the hall from the Welcome Witch serving terrible tea and excellent coffee.

“Coffee. God! Sorry, yes. Good morning. I’d love a coffee but only if you’re having something.”

Full of nervous energy she moved to stand carefully shifting her unusual stack of papers.

“Please. Sit. I’ll bring them back for us. How do you take your coffee?”

“Two creams please.”

While he was procuring their coffees, Miss Granger pulled another lobby chair kitty-corner to hers so that they might both use the small side table beside her chair.

She made a charming show of blowing on her steaming mug, before taking a sip. Everyone knew the general stasis on purchased beverages ensured the drink was at perfect drinking temperature.

He sipped at his own coffee, wondering how on earth to engage her in conversation without coming off the creep.

But the coffee had loosened her tongue. “Want to hear something funny?”

She held up yesterday’s Daily Prophet edition from the top of her paper stack. It was opened to the second page and a large photo of Minerva McGonagall stared at him. “Twelve years ago Professor, now Headmistress Minerva McGonagall,” she pointed to the picture “came to my house. I remember liking her and that she tried to convince my parents to let me attend boarding school, attend — ” here she grabbed up the old Witch Weekly from her stack. It was creased open to an article about Hogwarts with a large picture of the castle in a thunderstorm. She checked the caption before showing him the photo. “ -Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They said no. My parents.

And then Professor McGonagall pulled out…” Miss Granger flipped to the back section of advertisements in the Witch Weekly, where she had dog eared the page with an Ollivander’s ad. “…a wand. And made me forget that it was a magical school and they wanted me because I see magic.”

Being an international dueling champion did wonders for, well actually required the ability to quickly process information. Severus was an undefeated champion for a reason, even if he was in shock at this situation.

“They wanted you to attend not because you see magic, because you ARE magic.”

They sat in silence. Would she return to the muggle world and this coffee date have been fruitless?

“Do you want to forget again? For good this time, I am even better than the Headmistress at memory charms.”

“NO! I don’t want to forget. All my life I’ve felt I was missing something. I always thought it was something tragically ridiculous like a soulmate or an almost remembered past life.”

Severus cast his own personal refreshing spell on her person and her clothes. With gentle care.

She looked at him like he hung the moon. He probably wasn’t blushing.

“Would you like to learn more today? Or perhaps sometime next”

“Today! I don’t want to forget again. That’s why I didn’t leave last night. I was terrified to go home and never be able to find this place again, or to realize it was all imaginary.”

“Come, we’ll floo to Hogsmeade and see if Minerva is free.”

Miss Granger stood and took a large gulp of her coffee, as fortification.

He gestured them toward a room off the lobby where two large general floos were always burning.

Severus grabbed a large handful of floo-powder.

“It will be easiest I think if we travel together. I will drop this powder on the flames. We will step forward into them, unharmed, and I will speak our destination.”

At her nod, he proceeded. The flames turned green and he grabbed her arm in one hand and rested his other at the small of her back, ushering her into the floo.

“Hold tight to my arm.”

Another nod.

“Three Broomsticks” he intoned clearly.

As he stepped them out over the grate into Rosmerta’s pub, Severus realized the very pale Miss Granger had probably left her eyes open, and was obviously reeling from her first bout of magical travel.

He quickly led them out the door into the Scottish summer morning and leaned her against a warm brick wall.

“Close your eyes and breathe deeply through your nose if you can. Feel the solid ground beneath you, the brick wall at your back, the sun on your skin.”

Slowly color returned to her cheeks. He knew because he was studying her freckles very carefully. Three darker ones danced beneath her left eye at the top of her cheek.

Severus took his own deep breath and gently removed his hands from their hold of her upper arms. Without permission his thumbs had been soothing the skin below her short sleeves.

She blinked. Staring at him.

“Thank you so much for all of this, and the coffee, Mr.?”

“Snape, please call me Severus. You were a mystery I was happy to solve Miss Granger.”

“Hermione.”

Severus stepped back and offered his arm.

“Shall we Hermione?”

With a smile, her hand grasped his bicep just above his elbow.

“Thank you Severus.”

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe a one shot. 
> 
> I have notes on expanding it probably only one more shorter chapter if there is interest, or if it wants to get written.


End file.
